Program: Photoshop CS4
Transferable: Only to CS5 and CS6 (vibrance layers, yo)

So basically, this started out as me attempting to try to recreate coloring used on SNL promos which include a nice contrast of really soft colors and really vibrant/bold colors. I didn't quite get that, but it looks pretty good in my opinion. Anyway, HERE WE GOOOOO!!!

By the way, this is more of a GUIDE than a set-in-stone-this-works-every-time kind of thing. It will vary based on the image, but I'll try to help you understand how each took I used works so you can modify the tutorial to your needs.

Step 1.

I wanted to start out by washing out the colors so I could work on messing with the things I wanted to highlight later. I always work with the image as a whole before getting down to the nitty gritty. So what I did first was I copied the original image and set the layer to Screen.

Photos!: Screen 100%

I thought it looked a little TOO bright, so I took the opacity down to 50%

Photos!: Screen 50%

Much better! It's not as washed out as I would like, but it's also not blindingly bright.

Step 2.

Since it WASN'T as washed out as I wanted, I decided to mess with a Vibrancy layer. SNL promos are always really vibrant but also look a little washed out in the colors, and I thought this adjustment layer would help achieve that well.

So create a new Vibrancy layer. I turned up the vibrancy to 100% so the colors would become brighter. Then I turned down the saturation to -37,

Photos!: Vibrancy Layer

There we go! It's starting to get closer to what I wanted.

Step 3.

The image was a little too dark, still for my taste. The colors are washed out the way I want, but the darks are too dark. I decided to add a Levels layer.

Levels is a really cool feature that allows you to work with the highlights, shadows, and neutrals of an image. Or at least, I think that's what it does. lol. It's a little confusing at first, but once you figure out how it works, it's REALLY useful and versatile. I use it a lot, actually.

Anyway, when you make a new Levels layer, it will have three input values and two output values. Honestly, I never mess with the output values because I have no idea what they do.

Each of the input values deals with a different feature of the image. The leftmost deals with shadows, the middle with neutrals, and the rightmost with highlights. The default entries for these are 0, 1.00, and 255. If you slide the shadows to the right, it will make them darker. If you slide the neutrals left, it will make them lighter, and right will make them darker. If you slide the highlights to the left, it will make them brighter

So anyway, create a new Levels layer. I decided I was satisfied with how washed out everything was, so I decided to not mess with the highlights (the rightmost one). Next I decided to mess with the neutrals. I knew I wanted to LIGHTEN the image, so I slid the neutrals one to the LEFT until I liked it. Ultimately, the value ended up at 1.59. Then I decided that I had messed with the shadows too much, so I wanted to darken them back up again. The value ended up being 11.

Final values: 11, 1.59, 255.

Photos!: Levels Layer

Cool! That's pretty much how I wanted it to look, so now it's time to make the colors POP!

Step 4.

In order to make colors stand out, I ALWAYS use Selective Coloring. So create a new SC layer.

SPOILER!!: These are the values I used

Reds
__Cyan: -100
__Magenta: +100
__Yellow: 0
__Black: 0

Yellows
__Cyan: -100
__Magenta: +100
__Yellow: 0
__Black: 0

Greens
__Cyan: +100
__Magenta: -100
__Yellow: +100
__Black: 0

Cyans
__Cyan: +100
__Magenta: 0
__Yellow: -100
__Black: 0

Blues
__Cyan: +100
__Magenta: 0
__Yellow: -100
__Black: 0

Magentas
__Cyan: 0
__Magenta: 0
__Yellow: 0
__Black: 0

Whites
__Cyan: +100
__Magenta: 0
__Yellow: -43
__Black: 0

Neutrals
__Cyan: 0
__Magenta: 0
__Yellow: 0
__Black: 0

Blacks
__Cyan: 0
__Magenta: 0
__Yellow: 0
__Black: -26

And here's how it looks:

Photos!: Selective Coloring Layer 1

WOO! It looks pretty good. It has some nice pastel colors, but the reds don't pop QUITE as much as I want them too. Time for more selective coloring!

Step 5.

Since the reds didn't pop as much as I wanted them to, it's time for one last selective coloring layer. And since I want the reds to pop, I'm only going to mess with the Reds and Yellows channels.

SPOILER!!: channel values

Reds
__Cyan: -100
__Magenta: 0
__Yellow: 0
__Black: 0

Yellows
__Cyan: -100
__Magenta: 0
__Yellow: 0
__Black: 0

And here's what it looks like:

Photos!: Selective Coloring Layer 2

And I really like how it looks, so with that, we are finished!

Here's the final layer thingy.

Photos!: Layers

And also, here are two examples of how I used the coloring on a graphic I made for i m a g i n e

Photos!: examples

Happy coloring, everyone!